WHAT IF MARVEL MASTERWORKED THE GOLDEN AGE?

From its inception, Marvel Comics was more than just the standard comic book company. Sure, it offered costumed mystery-men, detectives, jungle heroes, and the other typical features of the era, but it offered them with a bit of an edge.

The company's very first book, Marvel Comics #1 (which would become Marvel Mystery Comics with #2) reflected this with two of its main features. The Human Torch was a creature of fear who, at first, couldn't even control his own flame, and the Sub-Mariner was the first of comics' anti-heroes, actually murdering 2 innocent men in his first story! The Torch quickly (within the first tale) learned to control his flame, and became a great boon to mankind contrasting the increasingly hostile Sub-Mariner, who the "surface dwellers" tried to put to death in the electric chair for his war on mankind. The attempt failed, and the "big two" of Marvel Mystery Comics finally battled it out- a true rarity of the time- in the ninth issue! Slowly after the battle Prince Namor mellowed a bit and began to battle the Axis powers, but not without slugging it out with the Torch three more times in the pages of Human Torch Comics #5(b), 8, and 10! With its third heavy hitter, Captain America, a couple of rare early teams- the Young Allies and the All-Winners Squad- and consistently good but largely obscure back-ups like the Vision, the Angel, Miss America, and the Whizzer, the company continued on through the war and into the 1950s doing something DC couldn't do- maintain a consistent quality of art and story.

The series mapped below show the beginnings of one of the great comic companies, and as with the Silver and Bronze Age maps, these are only possibilities based on the information available- they will change if Marvel's plans do. Accompanying all the maps are some lush mockup images of possible Masterworks covers, from the valuable skills of David Spofforth. Feast your eyes on some of them and ponder the question...What If? So for now just sit back, relax, and enjoy Marvel's potential future via it's glorious past.

-- by Steve Rogers, aka srca1941

NOTE FROM CHRIS: The maps on this page have been compiled from many various sources, but as you will notice, there are still quite a few issues without data. If you own any of these issues with missing data, any information you can supply would be greatly appreciated by all visitors to this site. I'd love to get accurate story titles and page counts for these issues. (And if you can supply an artist credit or two, that would be the icing on the cake!) If you can help, please e-mail CLEAZER72@YAHOO.COM)

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GENERAL MAP OUTLINES:

(For more detailed maps, click the individual volume links at the list on the right.)

All-Select
Vol. 1: #1-5
Vol. 2: #6-11

All-Winners
Vol. 1: #1-4
Vol. 2: #5-8
Vol. 3: #9-13
Vol. 4: #14-19, 21, #1

Black Knight
Vol. 1: #1-5, MSH #17, UK Hulk backups

Blonde Phantom
Vol. 1: #12-22

Captain America
Vol. 2: #5-8
Vol. 3: #9-12
Vol. 4: #13-16
Vol. 5: #17-20
Vol. 6: #21-24
Vol. 7: #25-28
Vol. 8: #29-32
Vol. 9: #33-36
Vol. 10: #37-40
Vol. 11: #41-45
Vol. 12: #46-50
Vol. 13: #51-55
Vol. 14: #56-50
Vol. 15: #61-66
Vol. 16: #67-75

Complete Mystery
Vol. 1: Complete Mystery #1-4, True Complete Mystery #5-8, and Amazing Mysteries #34-35

Daring Comics/Comedy Comics
Vol. 1: #1-4
Vol. 2: #5-8, Comedy Comics #9
Vol. 2: Comedy #10-11, Daring #9-12

Human Torch
Vol. 1: #2-5a
Vol. 2: #5b-8
Vol. 3: #9-12
Vol. 4: #13-18
Vol. 5: #19-25
Vol. 6: #26-35

Jann of the Jungle
Vol. 1: Jungle Tales #1-7, Jann #8-9
Vol. 2: #10-17

Jungle Action
Vol. 1: #1-6

Kid Comics
Vol. 1: #1-4
Vol. 2: #5-10

Lorna, Queen of the Jungle
Vol. 1: #1-8
Vol. 2: #9-17
Vol. 3: #18-26

Marvel Mystery Comics
Vol. 2: #5-8
Vol. 3: #9-12
Vol. 4: #13-16
Vol. 5: #17-20
Vol. 6: #21-24
Vol. 7: #25-28
Vol. 8: #29-32
Vol. 9: #33-36
Vol. 10: #37-40
Vol. 11: #41-44
Vol. 12: #45-48
Vol. 13: #49-52
Vol. 14: #53-56
Vol. 15: #57-61
Vol. 16: #62-66
Vol. 17: #67-71
Vol. 18: #72-76
Vol. 19: #77-81
Vol. 20: #82-86
Vol. 21: #87-92

Marvel Boy
Vol. 1: #1-2, Astonishing #3-6

Mystic Comics
Vol. 1: #1-4
Vol. 2: #5-8
Vol. 2: #9-10, #1-4

Namora/Sun Girl
Vol. 1: Namora #1-3, Sun Girl #1-3

Spaceman
Vol. 1: Space Squadron #1-5, Space Worlds #6, Spaceman #1-6

Sub-Mariner
Vol. 2: #5-8
Vol. 3: #9-12
Vol. 4: #13-18
Vol. 5: #19-24
Vol. 6: #25-33
Vol. 7: #34-42

Timely Comics
Vol. 1: Amazing Comics #1, Miss America #1, Red Raven #1, Tough Kid Squad Comics #1

Vol. 2: Blackstone #2-4, Complete Comics #2, Ideal #4, Miss America #2-5, Witness #1

Timely Revival
Vol. 1: Captain America Comics #76, Human Torch Comics #36-37, Men's Adventures #27, Sub-Mariner Comics #33-34, Young Men #24-28

Vol. 2: Captain America Comics #77-78, Human Torch Comics #38, Men's Adventures #28, Sub-Mariner Comics #35-42

U.S.A. Comics
Vol. 1: #1-4
Vol. 2: #5-8
Vol. 3: #9-12
Vol. 4: #13-17

Venus
Vol. 1: #1-9
Vol. 2: #10-19

Young Allies
Vol. 1: #1-4
Vol. 2: #5-8
Vol. 3: #9-13
Vol. 4: #14-20

Yellow Claw
Vol. 1: #1-4

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